Bible Question: "If someone is divorced, then remarried and then gets saved, are we continuing to sin in the marriage? Or if you marry a divorced person, is that committing adultery?"

Bible Answer: Jesus took a very dim view of divorce, giving only one reason to allow it, sexual immorality by a spouse.

"Furthermore it has been said, 'Whosoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce'," Jesus says in Matthew 5:31, where He is quoting Moses' law in Deuteronomy 24:1.

"But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery," Jesus continues in Matt. 5:32.

But even if you have committed this sin of adultery by marrying someone who was divorced for some other reason that sexual immorality, that is not an unforgivable sin.

"Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men," Jesus says in Matt. 12:31.

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is simply saying that the work of the Spirit was the work of Satan, which is what the Pharisees had accused Jesus of in Matt. 12:24, when Jesus had cast a demon out of a man who was blind and mute.

"But when the Pharisees heard it they said, 'This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons," Matt. 12:24 says.

For that statement, Jesus warned they could not be forgiven, "either in this age or in the age to come," in Matt. 12: 32.

But for any other sin, including adultery, Jesus says "every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men," in Matt. 12:31.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," 1 John 1:9 says.

So regardless of your past sins, or even your present sins, there is always forgiveness in Christ to wipe the slate clean.

Paul mentioned a long list of sins that will keep people from inheriting the kingdom of God in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, including fornicators and adulterers, along with many more.

But then he adds, speaking of the Corinthian believers, "And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctfied, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God," in 1 Cor. 6:11.

Note Paul said "such were some of you," not "are." When you sins are forgiven, you are washed, sanctified and justified.

Hebrews 13:4 says "Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge."

But even if you were guilty of that sin, if you've been forgiven, you're no longer a fornicator and adulterer, you're a "were."

So even if you have been divorced and remarried outside the one reason Jesus gave, this is most certainly not a sin that will keep us out of heaven. Just give it to Jesus and He will forgive.

Submit Bible questions by email to writeme@johnwmyers.com

(John Myers has been a Christian lay speaker, Sunday School adult teacher and newspaper Bible study columnist for more than 20 years.)